Charity to sell Taiwan Salt cosmetics

By Debby Wu / STAFF REPORTER

A flower girl holds the Garden of Hope Foundation's mascot during an opening ceremony yesterday for a retail shop on Taipei's Roosevelt Road, jointly run by the foundation and Taiwan Salt Industrial Corp.

PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

In a bizarre partnership to help boost sagging income from donations during the economic downturn, the Garden of Hope Foundation has decided to work with Taiwan Salt Industrial Corporation (TSIC) in selling TSIC's line of cosmetics.

Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), the foundation's director, said donations had fallen sharply recently, forcing the organization to cut expenses and look to the business sector for opportunities.

"We chose to work with TSIC because as a non-profit organization we lack the skills to run a store. But TSIC can provide us with suitable training and it has got a good marketing system already, so we don't need to worry about that," Chi said.

"Right now we are targeting sales of NT$800,000 a month, and we hope that we can make a profit of around NT$200,000 after deducting costs. All profits we make will be used on our work for unmarried mothers and victims of domestic violence, and we will try to create more employment opportunities for disadvantaged women in the shop," Chi said.

The foundation was established in 1988, and focuses on the welfare of teenage women and wives who suffer from domestic violence. It offers counseling to victims of sexual violence and operates shelters for unmarried pregnant teenagers.

TSIC has also been forced to diversify and created a series of highly popular collagen cosmetics sold in franchised stores.

The franchise run by the Garden of Hope Foundation opened on Roosevelt Road in Taipei yesterday, with TSIC chairman Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) promising even more support than is recieved by the company's other franchises.

"This is a good thing that could give women and minority groups access to more resources. We would be happy to have more social groups work with us like this," Cheng said.

Cheng said he met Chi at the Ketagalan Academy.

He said Chi saw that some of their classmates spent a lot on TSIC's cosmetics, giving her the idea for the unusual partnership.

The Garden of Hope Foundation shop is located at 83-1, Roosevelt Rd, Sec 2, Taipei.

This story has been viewed 3523 times.

Comments will be moderated. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned.